California Today: Campuses Brace for Breitbart Provocateur
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Debates over free speech principles have roiled college campuses in recent years.
The latest one has now hit California.
Outrage over a controversial speaker’s tour of several public universities across the state is forcing administrators to take stands on questions of hate speech and the free expression guaranteed under the First Amendment.
The speaker is Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart News, the right-wing website, who is known for his gleeful attacks on political correctness that can sometimes veer into racist and offensive language.
Notably, he was banned from Twitter for inciting trolls to attack the “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones.
His flamethrower approach often arouses a fierce backlash.
So it was that his scheduled speech at U.C. Davis last week devolved into a tense standoff between protesters and the police. It was called off before it could begin over security concerns.
Later, Mr. Yiannopoulos addressed a group of supporters on the campus quad. He denounced a university culture of so-called safe spaces that he said shielded students from diverse viewpoints.
“They cannot shut you up because you have the wrong political opinions,” he said.
More skirmishes are expected to play out in coming appearances at the other California campuses, including a crucible of the 1960s free speech movement, U.C. Berkeley.
Mr. Yiannopoulos was invited by the Berkeley College Republicans, a student group that portrayed the event, on Feb. 1, as a way to jolt the liberal campus with a different perspective.
More than 100 faculty members called for blocking the event in a letter to Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. It cited a speech Mr. Yiannopoulos delivered at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he belittled a transgender student by name.
“We support robust debate,” the letter said, “but we cannot abide by harassment, slander, defamation, and hate speech.”
But campus officials have vigorously defended Mr. Yiannopoulos’s constitutional right to speak.
Dan Mogulof, a Berkeley spokesman, said the university had faced an email and letter-writing campaign that included vague threats. As such, up to 50 additional police officers would be hired to work the event.
After all, Mr. Mogulof said, “We want to give Milo a safe space.”
California Online
(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)
• Video showed Fontana police officers cornering a mentally ill man and fatally shooting him. [Los Angeles Times]
• Should California’s drought rules be lifted? State officials are pondering the question. [Sacramento Bee]
• California is far from providing the leadership needed in the battle against climate change. [Opinion | The New York Times]
• Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has a provocative vision for his museum and his adopted city. [The New York Times]
• Lawmakers grilled Gov. Jerry Brown’s staff over a $1.5 billion accounting error. [Los Angeles Times]
• Donald J. Trump versus California: How the battle will be waged. [San Francisco Chronicle]
• How a liberal Santa Monica high school produced a top Trump adviser and speechwriter. [Los Angeles Times]
• There’s a new form of digital censorship taking place inside app stores. It could be the start of something devastating. [The New York Times]
• Netflix cited “The Crown” and other original series as reasons for a 56 percent jump in profits. [The New York Times]
• The federal Labor Department sued Oracle, accusing the tech giant of paying white men more than other workers. [The Mercury News]
• Arnold Palmer’s lessons have resonated with his grandson, a budding golfer. He’ll compete this weekend outside Palm Springs. [The New York Times]
• What $1,100,000 buys in Northern California, San Antonio and Chattanooga, Tenn. [The New York Times]
• John Carroll Lynch and Nick Offerman shared their thoughts on playing the McDonald brothers in “The Founder.” [The New York Times]
And Finally ...
Staying with the higher education theme ...
The struggles of California’s university system are well known.
Yet a large new study, released Wednesday, makes clear that the state’s public colleges also continue to have enormous strengths. Above all, they still serve as powerful engines of upward mobility.
At several Cal State campuses, for example, more than 75 percent of poor students have ended up in the middle class or beyond, according to the study, based on millions of anonymous tax records. Cal State was one of the best performers in the country on such mobility measures.
David Leonhardt looks at the larger meaning of the data in an Op-Ed column, and The Times has created a database that lets you search the results for any college.
California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.
The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.
P.C: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/california-today-milo-yiannopoulos-campus-tour.html
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